Related papers: Faint galaxies and the X-ray background
We use the extensive public archive of ROSAT High Resolution Imager (HRI) observations to carry out a statistical investigation of the X-ray properties of nearby galaxies. Specifically we focus on the sample of 486 bright (B_T < 12.5)…
We present the X-ray source number counts in two energy bands (0.5-2 and 2-10 keV) from a very large source sample: we combine data of six different surveys, both shallow wide field and deep pencil beam, performed with three different…
The growth of supermassive black holes across cosmic time leaves a radiative imprint recorded in the X-ray background (XRB). The XRB spectral shape suggests that a large population of distant, hidden nuclei must exist, which are now being…
Recent Chandra and XMM-Newton surveys have uncovered a large fraction of the obscured AGN responsible of the hard X-ray background. One of the most intriguing results of extensive programs of follow-up observations concerns the optical and…
Unexpected in the AGN unified scheme, there exists a population of broad-line z~2 QSOs which have heavily absorbed X-ray spectra. These objects constitute 10% of the population at luminosities and redshifts characteristic of the main…
A synthesis model for the cosmic X-ray Background (XRB) is presented, which includes a proper treatment of Compton scattering in the absorbing matter for type 2 AGN. Evidence for a decrease of the relative importance of type 2 AGN at high…
We present the results of the analysis of the ROSAT PSPC pointed observation of the S0 galaxy NGC5866. Previous Einstein observations had revealed that this galaxy has a low X-ray to optical ratio Lx/Lb. Theoretical models of the X-ra…
Today's sensistive, high resolution Chandra X-ray observations allow the study of many populations of X-ray sources. The traditional astronomical tools of photometric diagrams and luminosity functions are now applied to these populations,…
We report the discovery of the brightest X-ray source hosted by a faint (M_B=-16) dwarf galaxy in the immediate vicinity of the ultraluminous IRAS merging galaxy Mrk 273. The dwarf galaxy, 1.3 arcmin away from Mrk 273, is at the tip of a…
We investigate the properties of the most optically faint sources in the GOODS-N area (R > 26.5 AB). Such extremely optically faint populations present an uncharted territory despite the fact that they represent an appreciable fraction of…
We analyse very deep X-ray and mid-IR surveys in common areas of the Lockman Hole and the HDF North to study the sources of the X-ray background (XRB) and to test the standard obscured accretion paradigm. We detect with ISO a rich…
It is now established that the faint radio population is a mixture of star-forming galaxies and faint active galactic nuclei (AGNs), with the former dominating below S(1.4GHz) \sim 100 muJy and the latter at larger flux densities. The faint…
In a recent study (Maoz and Grindlay 1995) we have found that a number of previously recognized anomalies in the diffuse x-ray background at soft energies (\sim 0.5-2 keV) can be understood if about 20-30% of the diffuse flux arises from a…
We present a statistical analysis of the largest X-ray survey of nearby spiral galaxies in which diffuse emission has been separated from discrete source contributions. Regression and rank-order correlation analyses are used to compare…
The X-ray background intensity around Lick count galaxies and rich clusters of galaxies is investigated in three ROSAT energy bands. It is found that the X-ray enhancements surrounding concentrations of galaxies exhibit significantly softer…
Both theoretical and observational lines of reasoning suggest that the very faint (B > 24) galaxies seen in deep images of the sky are small low-mass galaxies that experienced starburst at 0.5<z<1 and have since faded into low luminosity,…
It is widely believed that most of the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) is produced by a vast, hitherto undetected population of obscured AGN. Deep X-ray surveys with Chandra and XMM will soon test this hypothesis. Similarly, recent sub-mm…
Recent ROSAT studies have identified a significant population of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) that are notably faint in soft X-rays relative to their optical fluxes. Are these AGN intrinsically X-ray weak or are they just highly absorbed?…
We present new spectra of dominant galaxies in X-ray selected clusters, which combine with our previously published spectra to form a sample of 256 dominant galaxies in 215 clusters; 177 of these are members of the ROSAT Brightest Cluster…
Models for the origin of the hard X-ray background have suggested that sources with the most accretion activity lie hidden in highly obscured AGN. We report on our study of hard, serendipitous sources in the fields of Chandra clusters with…